The Lithuanian Jewish Community has received a letter following publication of an interview with the sole survivor of the Holocaust in Šilalė, Lithuania, Ruvin Zeligman, who spoke about the disrespect shown the memory of the 1,500 Jews murdered there and the lack of care shown the Jewish cemetery and mass murder site.

We received a letter from Jurgita Viršilienė, senior specialist of the Education, Culture and Sports Department of the Šilalė regional administration, and from the alderman of Šilalė, denying the facts about which Zeligman spoke.

In the letter by Jurgita Viršilienė, she wrote: “The administration plans in the near future to announce a tender for a project for the reconstruction of the Kaltinėnai synagogue and its adaptation for public use. I believe memory of the Jewish cultural and [architectural] legacy will be preserved and honored in the Šilalė region. I would also like to share my happiness in the fact that the Šilalė region participated for the first time in Jewish Culture Day in 2016, and that the gymnasia and communities of Šilalė, Upyna, Laukuva, Kvėdarna, Pajūris and Kaltinėnai participated; let’s hope this will be a continuing project during which we remember, preserve and commemorate the Jewish Litvak communities who lived here.”